Peter Ticktin, an 80-year-old Florida lawyer and Donald Trump's childhood friend from the New York Military Academy, is urging the president to invoke emergency powers over the 2026 US midterm elections, CNN reported.
The proposal is based on unsubstantiated claims that countries including Venezuela, China and Iran manipulated the 2020 US presidential election through electronic voting systems.
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A 17-page draft executive order, reviewed in full by PBS News, would authorise the president to invoke emergency powers over alleged foreign interference involving electronic voting systems. It also proposes nationwide requirements for hand-counting ballots, voter identification and restrictions on mail-in voting.
Trump Denies Knowledge Of Draft Executive Order
Ticktin told CNN he has communicated directly with Trump about the proposal and has also spoken with unnamed White House and Justice Department officials. Trump, however, denied any knowledge of the plan when questioned by PBS News in February, saying, "Who told you that? No, I've never heard about it."
A White House official later told CNN that Ticktin tends to overstate his current relationship with the president and does not influence election policy. Ticktin has also represented several prominent figures associated with efforts to challenge the 2020 election results, including former Colorado clerk Tina Peters, who was released from prison last month after Trump urged Colorado Governor Jared Polis to commute her sentence.
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State election officials and constitutional scholars have warned that such a move would likely face immediate legal challenges, arguing that the US Constitution largely leaves election administration to the states, with Congress setting the framework for federal elections.
Ticktin has also claimed, without evidence, that Democrats are plotting to win enough congressional seats in the midterms to impeach and remove Trump and Vice President JD Vance, which, he alleges, would allow House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries to become president.
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